Hazbin Hotel 1-4

So it turns out the show the Blue Ranger was filming at the same time as Cosmic Fury was NCIS: Hawaii. Too bad I don't watch NCIS or its spinoffs anymore.

‭Anyway, my thoughts on Hazbin Hotel so far: At first I was disappointed, but I found things to like about it. My favorite character going into it was Vaggie, but that quickly switched to Niffty. I liked that when Vaggie was throwing everyone off the roof (except Husk who retreated down the stairs), Niffty acted like a toddler who wanted upsies. Charlie wouldn't let Vaggie throw Niffty, so Niffty had to climb over the edge and drop down herself. When Husk was going over what everyone's deal was, he said they didn't want to know what Niffty's was. I agree that the events of episode 3 (minus the team-building) came a little too soon, especially since “Whatever It Takes" sounded like it should have been placed toward the end of the season. I didn't like Velvette in “Respectless," but I liked her characterization in episode 2. My favorite episode so far has to be episode 2, especially “Stayed Gone." My expectation for Velvette was she was a Loli chick or e-girl who acted like a little kid, but that's not the case here. Had it been, her behavior during the Overlord meeting would have made more sense, her whining that she didn't want to be there and that everyone there was old and irrelevant. There are two musical numbers in each episode, which all sound like they should be performed on Broadway, hence the recast of Broadway actors. I was glad to be recommended the video of the old VAs singing “Thank You and Goodnight." I do miss the old voices, especially Husk's. I still like Keith David, whose performance so far reminds me of his other roles: the cat from Coraline except angrier and the president from Rick and Morty.
‭In regards to the question “Is Charlie making everything worse?” I’d say the answer is yes. She didn’t want Vaggie literally throwing the gang into a turf war, yet they built stronger bonds because of it (and it was funny). Charlie’s interference also made Vaggie question her judgment and worth as Charlie’s protector. She wanted to get Angel some time off of work (partial blame goes to Vaggie for persuading her to use her clout as Princess of Hell to do so), but that only resulted in Angel getting abused more than usual since Valentino couldn’t do anything to Charlie due to her position. ‭As always, we'll just have to see where it goes from here.

Kingdom Hearts Tube?

I’ve been wanting to get back into making Kingdom Hearts videos, even if it’s the kind where I’m doing the voiceover. I have some ideas I’d like to discuss. First of all, I’ve been trying to group the games into digestible chunks or eras. The originals, as I’d like to refer to them as, consist of 1, CoM, 2, and Days. That wraps the first phase of the story with a neat little bow: they set off on their adventure, they continue their adventure, and they end their adventure with some Roxas stuff on the side. The second is the bridge to KH3, which consists of Birth By Sleep, Coded (at least the version that’s just cutscenes), Dream Drop Distance, and Fragmentary Passage. BBS adds the backstory needed for the main story to keep going - they’re not done. Then there’s KH3 plus Remind and Melody of Memory in one package. This provides a little more finality even though the story still isn’t over, just the Dark Seeker saga. Can we even get Sora back? The final grouping consists of the mobile games, which take us even further back in time and provide as many questions as they do answers. This includes X/Back Cover, Unchained X, Union X, Dark Road, and Missing Link.
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This brings me to my next topic of discussion and perhaps an idea for another Xehanort-based game. I still want to know what happened in the year that Xehanort was an amnesiac apprentice, but I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of gameplay that could entail. Cards and rhythm wouldn’t make sense like Chain of Memories and Melody of Memory, but it should be something unique and have the word “Memory” or “Memories” as per the other two. Unless it takes place over a certain number of days, then something with “Days” in it. A visual novel might be too boring, but something like Doki Doki Literature Club or Ace Attorney might work. It would also have to incorporate the scenes that are scattered amongst the other games: the end of BBS, the flashback from KH2, the opening flashback of DDD, and the flashback from Melody of Memories. It would have to include everything Apprentice Xehanort did, like the experiments on Subject X and others, the experiments on himself, and basically anything from any existing reports. Subject X goes missing (if we’re playing purely from Xehanort’s perspective, it will likely still remain a mystery what Luxu did or where he sent her), Ansem is banished and it gets covered up, everyone’s hearts get stolen, Isa and Lea ask to become apprentices and lose their hearts as well, the Door to Darkness is opened and the town is overrun, and Xehanort takes Kairi off the street and sends her to Destiny Islands.
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Then there’s a nine-year gap between Kairi arriving and the beginning of KH1. Lots of downtime as the original 6-8 Organization members figure things out. One of them still needs to go through puberty and two of them have to finish puberty. We don’t need to read that far into it, but it would be nice to see Zexion restore his ability to speak if that was indeed an issue for him and not a cost-cutting measure to avoid casting a child actor for him in BBS. I would love for this theoretical game to have voice-acting, but I could see how it wouldn’t need to if it’s mostly text-based. I just get so excited imagining the visuals in my head. Just Monika? More like Just Xehanort. Or a courtroom-like scene leading up to Ansem's banishment.
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That’s all for now. Looking forward to Season 4 of Ascendance of a Bookworm.